Week 24 at the Pole

By Jean DeMerit, 23 Jun 2017 12:00 PM

Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

What a busy week at the Pole. So much time, and so little to do. (Strike that. Reverse it.) After all, it was Midwinter there, marking the halfway point of the long, dark winter. That’s reason enough to celebrate. They held their traditional viewing of “The Shining” and celebratory dinner, including salads, menus, and fancy décor. All across Antarctica, research stations took group photos and created and exchanged Midwinter greeting cards—the South Pole station’s is shown at the bottom. Also last week was the culmination of a station-wide facial hair contest. Winterovers James and Martin both participated, but somehow did not quite make it into the circle of winners, posing together above. The auroras were celebrating, too—some really bright ones, and one in particular that seemed to be trying to wrap itself around the Milky Way.